Herr Prop-Wasche

Ouch. Sorry to hear about your knee, Typhoon. I have two creaky knees that sometimes bark at me if I sit in front of the computer too much, but nothing that requires surgery (yet). Get well soon.

No problem and take your time, Duce. It's nice what you and your Dad are doing and puts in perspective the real meaning of "Memorial Day." Olham is also helping with the FM and he is, of course, on vacation until the end of the month. I've checked into the CFS3 SDK and although it's helpful in some areas, it only mentions a few critical files and variables. Most are left for us to guess at. I don't have a current copy of CFS3 on my computer. If you do, you might look at the cfg files for a few of the WWII airplanes to see how they differ from OFF's WWI planes. Might be interesting to look at.

Ah, I didn't test whether the pilot claims get saved or not. My guess is that my program does not currently save your claims. I'll check and see if I can remedy that or not, but don't get your hopes up.

Thanks for your feedback, Duce. The wing failures can probably be cured by adjusting the maximum_g value. I will try that tonight and get back to you. Keep in mind differences in "stick handling" of course. Although I put the N28 through some turns, I did not go out of my way to stress the airframe in combat conditions. On the other hand, I don't want the plane to become indestructible. Roll was set pretty low in the original FM. I didn't increase the floor, but instead increased the range of values. I can probably increase the base roll rate a little to see what effect it has on performance. I agree about the testing. In general, I try to find the maximum ceiling and the cruising speed at 500 feet. Climb, turns, and dive are done pretty much by "feel' as I don't have a decent stopwatch right now. (I have just recently discovered a complicating factor in setting the drag in the air file. Turns out that in addition to adjusting the climb rate, ceiling, and dive speed, it also has a major impact on the cruising speed. This leads to strange results, such as a Triplanes with high cruising speeds and very high dive speeds. In fact, all "fast" planes have relatively low drag compared to slower planes. The only way to adjust the cruising speed independent of the drag factor is to adjust either a value called "power_scaler" in the engine performance section or "thrust_scaler" in the propeller section. However, I don't think these variables have anything to do with real world physics and are instead "cheat" values used in CFS3 to control for unrealistic performance specifications--if that makes any sense. I'll have to test changes to both of these variables to be more sure.)

Bumped in effort to restore thread.

My FM tweaking thread appears to have been deleted or is missing? Was it something I said? Upon further investigation, it appears the FM tweaking thread has been moved to the OFF Knoweldge Base forum. Don't forget to stop by and say hello!

If in the process of re-installing windows you need to reformat your hard drive, be sure to first save the MyOFFBackupFiles folder to an external storage device.

I will be looking forward to your reports! Don't be shy about sharing the bad as well as the good. Here is a question for everyone to ponder: do you think the planes in OFF are, in general, easier to fly than in real life, about the same as in real life, harder to fly in real life, or easier or harder depending on the particular airplane? Regardless of whether you think the planes are too easy to fly or too difficult to fly, what aspect, in general for most planes, is most out of line with your expectations: speed, turning ability, climb, stall, etc.? I am curious about others opinions for guidance about what direction to take with my FM tweaking.

Have you ruled out a virus? I have heard that certain viruses can cause random reboots.

Duce and Crossbones, Thanks for the input. I have just uploaded a quick tweak of the FM for the N28 in the FM thread, which I hope helps to address some of your concerns. Please be sure to let me know about what you like and dislike about the changes. You should find the N28 a little faster, a little easier to turn, and not as prone to weird stall behavior. Watch your speed in a prolonged dive, however!

Finally, the FM tweaks are done! Attached, please find two zip files. One is for FM tweaks to the Albatross DII, DIII early, and DIII late; and the other for the N28. The Albatross files are in reply to a request from Olham and others that there is not much of a difference or improvement from the DII to the DIII series of aircraft. I tend to agree, since the Alb DIII series, with the exception of its wing shedding problems (represented in the FM tweak!), was recognized as one of the best aeroplanes of the mid-war period. Likewise, the N28 files are an effort to somewhat improve the performance of the N28. Although there are many changes to the FM's of each aircraft, the main ones have to do with parasitic drag. Parasitic drag affects the performance of each aircraft in many ways, including climb rate, cruise speed, stall, and aircraft ceiling. IMO, the parasitic drag of many of the aircraft in OFF is not quite correct. For example, the Bristol Fighter, with the heaviest weight and greatest wing area of any plane in OFF, has one of the lightest drag settings. In contrast, the Nieuports have drag settings that are sometimes two or even three times the drag of the F2b. As a consequence, other settings have had to be changed in OFF to get the aircraft to perform according to historical patterns. I have tried, with my first FM tweaking attempt, to remedy some of these problems with a few aircraft. I will leave it to you to decide if I have been successful. So far, the tweaks are only to be used in QC or CFS3 QC. If most of you approve of the changes, I will make another update available for the campaign. Here are the instructions for installing the FM mod: 1) Open your aircraft\AlbDII_QC1, Alb_DIII_QC1, Alb_DIII_early, and Nieuport_N28_QC1 folders. 2) BACKUP OR RENAME THE *.AIR AND *.CFG FILES IN EACH OF THESE FOLDERS. 3) Unzip the zip file(s) into your OBD Software\aircraft folder. If the program asks to overwrite files, click NO, and make sure you have renamed or backed-up the correct files. 4) Play a QC battle. Enjoy! Please be sure to inform me of what you like and dislike about each of these changes. FM tweaking is hard work (my sympathies to OFF), and if I do not hear from anyone, I won't be able to continue making FM tweaks to the aircraft that may need some adjustments. I hope you enjoy the files, and recognize the labor of love that these changes represent. Thank you!

Still experiencing internet access problems, so my access to the forum is limited. Still, I have some news to report. I have finished making some FM tweaks to the Albatross DII and DIII series and to the N28 and plan to upload the files later tonight or tomorrow. Look for them in this thread or in the download section.

It is the heaviest of all of the Nieuport's, isn't it? Most later Albatross had engines with at least 170 hp and were overcompressed and run lean, to boot, so I'm not sure if the N28 would catch up or not. One thing i can look at is the drag. Lowering it a tad may allow the plane to accelerate a little better.

Tell me what you don't like about the FM of the N28. There may be a way to fix it. More details the better. For instance, I am fairly sure I can reduce its tendency for its wings to break up in a sharp turn while still allowing for damage from a too fast dive. I am currently working on the Albatross series and have had some success with them, although I am still not quite finished. See my FM tweaking thread for details.

Another brief update, of sorts... Due to an unfortunate series of events, I have been without home internet access for the last several days. This situation is likely to continue for the next week or so, so I will not be able to post very often for the forseeable future. However, I am still working on the FM and making (slow) progress. I will also try to post a second installment of the FM tweaking tutorial within the next couple of days. Cheers, HPW

My apologies if anyone misunderstood my instructions, but the above statement is incorrect. The backup program is designed to work regardless of where OFF is installed. In fact, the computer that I use has OFF installed on the D: drive, so I am sure it works even if you do not install OFF to C: It is true that the backup files are stored in a folder on the C: drive, but that is only to insure that the files do not get erased if you have to uninstall OFF. I hope this helps to clear things up. Only 20 downloads so far!

Nice summertime camouflage, WM!

A small update... Only after starting the tutorial did I realize how little I actually knew about all of the variables in the FM. Thus, why I haven't posted anything in this thread recently. Since then, I have done a little more studying and experimenting and feel that I have a much better grasp on things. A few of the things I have discovered: In case of an inconsistency between the .cfg file and the .air file, the values in the .air file take precedence. Previously, I thought it was the opposite. I discovered this after trying in vain to change the speed at which an aircraft takes damage in a dive by altering the .cfg file. Instead, I found you have to change an entry in the .air file (which is a hex file) to make this variable take effect. Now, I can make the Alb DIII start to take damage from over-speeding in a dive. Also, taking damage in a dive is independent from taking damage due to high G maneuvers, so I think I can more realistically portray the Alb's tendency to shed a wing in a dive while making it less likely to shed a wing in a high G turn! Good news for Olham! I am also working on re-working the dive rates for various craft. This can be changed by altering another .air file entry for parasitic drag. Many of the aircraft in BHaH seem to have incorrect dive speeds. I have already mentioned the Sop. Tripe, for example. For those who are interested, here is a list of some of the other variables that can be altered in the .cfg and .air files: engine HP (among many others), center of gravity, stall speed, induced drag, positive and negative G tolerance, max airspeed, cruising speed, maximum dive speed, climb rate, roll rate, turn radius, crash "tolerance" for fuselage/wings/tail, among many others. As you can see, lots of variables to play with and keep one busy for awhile!

I have been able to O/C my Asus MB and AMD 4000+ approximately 12.5% on air cooling. Although it is rock solid at that setting, any attempts at all to go beyond that have ended in failure.

My TIR4 with TIR5 software usually starts up without a hitch, but it does occasionally freeze the first time I start it. As Olham said, closing and then opening it again always seems to get it to work again.

Pol is probably referring to several factors that most likely have an affect on dive speed, including maximum speed, cruising speed, zero lift drag, aircraft weight, etc. Drag seems to have some of the most effect on a number of factors. It not only effects dive speed, but also level speed, climb rate, and even ceiling, as demonstrated when I lowered the drag coeff. of the Alb DIII early. I was able to attain an altitude of 19,000 ft.--a full 1,000 ft. more than it should be capable of! Almost too many factors to play with.

Interesting information! The DrI's lower drag coefficient probably comes from its shorter wings than the Camel's, giving it an overall lower surface area. Off the top of my head, drag coeff. is probably affected by some of the following factors: length of wing, wing chord, number of wings (all 3 contributing to overall surface area), "straight" vs. tapered wing, thickness of wing, and dihedral. Can you think of any others? Do you know of any readily available sources that might give me some of this information, especially data about zero lift drag? In the game, the aerocraft with the lowest drag coefficients are (with lowest listed first) the Sop. Pup, Triplane, Camel, and Se5a viper, followed by the DrI, Spad XIII, and the Bristol Fighter. The planes with the highest drag coefficients are (from lower to highest) the Nieuport 17, Fokker DVIIF!!, Halberstadt, Nieuport 16, Nieuport 11, and Fokker EIII. What do you think? I'm not sure I agree with the ordering of the planes in the game in terms of drag. However, this is only off the top of my head, as I do not have any hard data in front of me to compare.

OFFUserBackupFiles program View File README File INSTALLATION AND OVERVIEW: Simply extract the OFFUserBackupFiles.zip file to the OBDSoftware\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields folder where the OFFManager.exe file is located. I recommend that you immediately run the program and then rerun the program every time you make a major change to your OFF installation or just before you have to uninstall and reinstall OFF on your computer. To run the program, simply left click the program name and follow the instructions. Please note that in order to locate and copy some files, the program requires you to input the name of your operating system. When prompted, simply type either "XP, Vista, or Win7" and press the Enter key. The files will then be copied and placed in a new directory on your C: drive named MyOFFSetupFiles. When you wish to restore your saved files to your new OFF installation, simply navigate to the C:\MyOFFSetupFiles folder to select and copy the files you wish to restore. IMPORTANT: Note that your files do NOT all go to the same location in your OFF installation. The files should be placed in OFF as follows: In the \OBD Software\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields folder ViewUI.xml In the \OBD Software\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields\campaigns\CampaignData\Pilots folder Pilot[]Log.txt Pilot[]Dossier.txt Pilot[]Claims.txt The following five files should be placed as follows: IF XP: C:\Documents and Settings\YOURNAME\Application Data\Microsoft\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields folder IF Vista or Win7: C:\Users\YOURNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields folder ViewUI.xml mine.xca CFS3.xca UnlimitedPilots.xml ConfigOverrides.xml --------------- REVISION HISTORY v 1.2 Added Pilot[]Claims.txt to backup program Submitter Herr Prop-Wasche Submitted 04/30/2010 Category Modding Tools and Add-on Software

All right, it's done and awaiting approval by the mods for download! The program has been tested on one XP machine (mine), one Vista machine, and one Win7 machine. There was one small hitch at first with the Vista machine, but that was because OFF was setup with a non-standard installation. The program has been patched so it should now run correctly no matter where you installed OFF as long as you remember to extract the two files in the zip file to the CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields directory. Although the program does not alter any of your Windows files or your OFF installation, use of the program is at your own risk. Please report any problems, error messages, etc. to me here at this thread. Thank you and I hope everyone enjoys and gets some use out of the program. You can download the file here: http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=10890